Grain-lifting attachment for harvesters.



PATENTED FEB. 5. 1907 A. H. MoOUTOHAN.

GRAIN LIFTING ATTACHMENT FOR HARVESTERS. APPLIOATION FILED MAR. 2, 1906.

d' 6 g 6 III A TTOR/VE Y5 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALBERT H. McCUTOHAN, or GoLTaY, Oman-Iona TERRITORY, ASSIGNOR EONE-FOURTH T0 CHARLES M. DELZELL AND ONE-FOURTH To J. H. sANTEE,- orGOLTRY, oKLAHoMA TERRITORY.

GRAIN-LIFTING ATTACHMENT FOR HARVESTERS.

N 0. 843,164. Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Feb. 5, 1907.

Application filed March 2, 1906. Serial No. 303.874.

To all whom it may concern.- applied to the guard-fingers of the cuttingBe it known that 1, ALBERT H. MC apparatus of harvesters and binders, itbeing CUTCHAN, a citizen of the United States, reintended in practice toapply one of the grainsiding at G-oltry, in the county of Woods andlifting devices to each guard-finger of the 5 Oklahoma Territory, haveinvented a new cutting apparatus.

and useful Grain Liftin Attachment for The lifting device, which ispreferably Harvesters, of which the following is a specimade of cast ormalleable iron, comprises a fication. lower member 1 and an upper member2, This invention relates to harvesters and converging at the front in apoint or apex 3. 1o binders, and especially to the cutting appa In Figs.1 and 2 of the drawings the lower ratus of this class of machines.member 1 has been shown as provided at its The invention has for itsprime object to rear extremity with a socket 4, adapted to relift or toelevate grain that has been broken ceive the forward end of aguard-finger 5 of down either on account of being overripe and ordinaryconstruction, it being understood I 5 heavy or by being beaten down byrain or by that the socket 4 may be modified to adapt it hail, so as tocause the straw to be severed for engagement with the guard-fhagcrs ofvaproperly by the cutting apparatus and the rious machines. The upperwall of the heads to be guided onto the platform, and socket 4 has anaperture 6, into which is thus avoiding the waste which commonlythreaded a set-screw 7 for the reception of 20 takes place whenoperating in down grain by the point of which the guard-finger 5 is prosevering the stems close to the heads, pervided with a notch 8, as willbe seen in Fig. 2 mitting the latter to drop upon the ground of thedrawings, thus enabling the device or and to pass under the machine.attachment to be firmly secured in operative l/Vith these and other endsin view, which position upon the guard-finger, from which it 5 willreadily appear as the nature of the inextends in a straight forwarddirection to the vention is better understood, the same con extent ofthe length of the member 1, which sists in the improved construction andnovel extends forwardly in the approximate plane arrangement andcombination of parts of the guard-finger. which will be hereinafterfully described, and Theupper member 2 inclines upwardly particularlypointed out in the claims. and rearwardly from the apex 3 and is to beIn the accompanying drawings has been extended rearwardly to asufficient extent to illustrated a simple and preferred form of thedeliver material onto the platform of the har- 8 5 invention, it being,however, understood that vester, as will be readily understood. nolimitation is necessarily made to the pre The members 1 and 2 areconnected with 5 cise structural details therein exhibited, but eachother by means of an intermediate reinthat changes, alterations, and.modifications forcing member or brace 9, approximately within the scopeof the invention may be U-shaped, the limbs 10 10 of said brace being93- made when desired. joined to the members 1 2, so as to thicken, Inthe drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective stiffen, and reinforce thelatter for a portion 40 view showing an ordinary guarddinger havof theirlengths intermediate the apex 3 and ing the improved grain-liftingdevice applied the butt or rear end of the member 1, where thereto. Fig.2 is a sectional view illustrat experience has proven that strength ispar- 95 ing more particularly the means for securing ticularly needed inorder to prevent breakage. the grain-lifting device upon theguard-finger. Under the modification shown in Fig. 3 of 45 Fig. 3 is aside view illustrating a modified the drawings the socket 4 and theattaching form under which the grain-lifting device is means are simplydispensed with, the lower made integral with the guard-linger. Fig. 1member (here designated 11) of the lifting is a sectional detail viewtaken on the plane device being made integral with the guardindicated bythe line 4 4 in Fig. 1. finger, which is here designated 12. The 5Corresponding parts in the several figures other parts of the deviceremain unchanged are indicated throughout by similar characand have beendesignated by the same referters of reference. ence-numerals as in Figs.1 and 2.

The improved grain-lifting attachment is The operation and advantages ofthis inchine is equipped with the improved grainsame.

lifting device, grain that is down will be en gaged by the apex 3 of thelifting devices connected with the guard-lingers of the cut tingapparatus and will be gradually lifted sufficiently to cause the stemsto be severed at the proper distance from the ground, the

heads being guided over the rearwardly and upwardly inclined members 2onto the grainplatform, thus avoiding loss and waste of material.

By reason of the arrangement of the several parts as herein described,and shown in the drawings,it is possible to provide a simple and stronggrain-lifting attachment for a finger-guard. At the same time theattachment is light and will not add materially to the weight of themachine to which it is attached or have a tendency to tilt the forwardend of the finger-guard to which it is attached in a downward direction.As the brace 9 extends vertically from the lower member 1 to the uppermember 2 and as the limbs 10 10 extend along the said members from thebrace 9 toward the apex or point of con vergence of the said members,those portions of the finger-guard lying between the brace 9 and theapex 3 are strengthened and made rigid, while the rear end'of the member2 is free to vibrate, which vibration will have its effect in untanglingthe grain and erecting the In other words, the forward portion of thegrain-lifter isso braced as to be devoid of vibration, but serves as anentering wedge, while the rear end of the upper member 2- is free tovibrate.

I am aware that patents have been granted for grain-lifters which ingeneral appearance somewhat resemble the construction herein vices areeither objectionable for the reason that they add excessive weight tothe machine to which they are applied or by reason of injudiciousarrangement of parts are not braced and-strengthened at the pointssubjected to the greatest strain; hence are frail and are liable to betwisted out of shape as the result of slight use.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed is 1. Agrain-lifting device adapted to be attached to the finger-guard of aharvester consisting of a forwardly-extending member, a member extendingrearwardly from the forward end of said forwardly-extending member andbeing inclined at an angle with relation to said forwardly-extendingmember, a U-shaped limb inserted between said members and having itsends extending toward the point of connection between the two saidmembers and inclined toward each other, the outer sides of the ends ofthe limb being secured along their entire length to the said members andbeing concave to conform to the contour thereof.

2. A grain-lifting device adapted to be at tached to the finger-guard ofa harvester consisting of a forwardly-extending member, a memberextending rearwardly from the forward end of said forwardly-extendingmemher and being inclined at an angle with relation to saidforwardly-extending member, a brace extending vertically between theforwardly extending member and the rearwardly extending member andattaching with both and having limbs which extend therefrom along bothof said members toward the point of juncture only and bracing thatportion of the lifting device lying between the brace and the point ofjuncture of the forwardly and rearwardly extending members and leavingthe rear portion of the rearwardlyextending member free for vibration.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I have hereto aliixedmy signature in the presence of two witnesses.

ALBERT H. MCCUTCHAN itnesses:

FRED WALLACE, E. L. HUYoK.

